The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 175: No Hardship
News of Tatar cavalry appearing west of Junma Mountain for several consecutive days has spread throughout the five border garrisons.

The five border guards were on high alert, and the air above them was thick with tension.

The Junma Mountain range is really too vast.

It stretches for 500 li from north to south and is 30 to 60 li wide from east to west.

Only at the gaps in the mountains were city walls and a few beacon towers built, echoing the garrison of the five major garrisons in the plains.

The rammed earth city wall has withstood more than two hundred years of wind and sun.

Even though it is repaired every year, there are still many weak points.

The border line is long and has many inherent weaknesses.

After most of his elite troops were transferred to other positions, Xiong Zhen, the deputy commander in charge of defending the border city, was quite worried about the existing defenses.

Inside the General's Headquarters.

Xiong Zhen, Tian Jiutian, several guerrilla generals, and Gan Minglan are meeting.

The theme of this meeting was patrol and defense.

Ever since the night watchmen spotted the Tatar cavalry, Xiong Zhen had never smiled again.

The generals were being assigned tasks during the meeting.

Sending Gan Minglan to major decision-making meetings was a direct order Zhao Muyun gave to Xiong Zhen before his departure.

This was the first time Gan Minglan had ever seen such a detailed military patrol map.

He listened to the discussions of the crowd, but his eyes never left the table.

Half an hour later, Xiong Zhencai arranged the specific tasks.

Out of respect for the Jade-Faced Rakshasa, this god of death, he still asked politely:
"Patrol is hard work; a single mission can take half a month to return. I wonder if Captain Gan would be interested in patrolling the border?"

Gan Minglan remained silent for several tens of seconds.

To be honest, she didn't want to go.

But we can't just not do any work.

After thinking for a moment, she said, "Encountering Tatars while patrolling the border depends on luck, and I've never been lucky, so I probably won't encounter them!"

If you can't encounter them, you can't kill them!
The generals opened their mouths, then closed them again in silence.

Jade-faced Rakshasa's brain is indeed different from theirs. Who the hell goes on patrol just to have a chance encounter with the Tatars?
Then, they heard the other person utter death-related remarks:
"Everyone knows the Tatars want to rob us, so why should we just sit here and wait to be robbed before we fight back? I'd like to take a trip to their grasslands!"

"hiss!"

"what?"

"Tsk!"

After the generals finished their exclamations, they all stared intently at Xiong Zhen.

Xiong Zhen swallowed hard, stammering, "Go...go to the grasslands? You...you want to?"

Gan Minglan spread her hands:

"I don't have any specific ideas yet. After all, the situation on the other side and the actions of the various Tatar tribes are still unclear. Just think of me as someone going to scout."

Not only is he skilled, but he's also someone who enjoys taking on hardship.

What general wouldn't be happy to have such a capable person under his command?

"Come, Captain Gan, tell us which checkpoint you plan to use to leave, where you plan to go to gather information, and how many days it will take you to return?"

"Also, how many people are you taking with you?"

Gan Minglan pointed to the highest peak in the middle of Shangjunma Mountain on the border map and said that she wanted to climb the mountain from here to get a better view!

The group immediately began discussing the feasibility of the plan.

Finally, he also planned to select ten night watchmen familiar with southern Mongolia to give to her.

But what's troubling the generals right now is...

The medical team members were all taken away by General Zhao, and there were no female soldiers in the military camp.

What kind of talk is it to send a woman out on a mission with ten male soldiers?

Gan Minglan: "Can't I go into the grasslands alone? I'm very fast!"

Xiong Zhen, Tian Jiu, and others expressed strong opposition. They had no idea that Gan Minglan possessed a sacred tree space where she could hide.

It is conceivable that no matter how strong her individual combat skills are, she would be helpless against a massive army.

With her looks, what good could she possibly get if she fell into the hands of the Tatars?

Both sides refused to give in to each other.

Gan Minglan finally thought of her younger brother, Gan Mingfu, with whom she had a deep conversation a few days ago about his ambition to abandon his studies and join the army.

One person in the family enlisting is enough.

Military status in Bei State is not a desirable position, so Gan Minglan naturally disagreed.

However, nineteen-year-olds are at the peak of their youthful passion.

Gan Minglan herself had gone through a rebellious phase in her youth, and she was afraid that after this boy was rejected, he would one day run off and sign up himself.

In the border town, ordinary people who want to join the army can have their paperwork processed in no time.

Don’t be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of what happens.

Or, how about we take this kid to the grasslands this time to broaden his horizons and make him give up?

With that in mind, she suggested that she bring a bodyguard with her.

"My younger brother is exceptionally intelligent and skilled in painting! He is the last disciple of the headmaster of the best academy in our area, who once said that he has the talent to become a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations).

I want to bring him along on this trip so he can help me draw what we see and hear on the grasslands when we get back.”

Her suggestion made everyone beam with joy.

Immediately, a guerrilla general enthusiastically said:
"It's good to be a scholar. We're all roughnecks, barely literate, and can't draw or anything. Captain Gan, should we let my younger brother join our Shenji Battalion?"

"Captain Gan, every soldier in our right sentry post is an elite!"

"A real man should be a cavalryman, Captain Gan, listen to what Ang Lao Zhao has to say."

"."

Good guy!
Are all generals of the fourth rank so unreliable?
Or is it that the filter for scholars is too thick?

They haven't even met the person yet, and they've already started fighting over them?
They even got physical!

Gan Minglan was dumbfounded.
How could she know.

To these border military officers, the scholars in the barracks were all remarkable intellectuals.

The scholar she praised personally was a top-notch scholar among intellectuals.

Everyone knows that intellectuals are often cunning and scheming.

If we used this kind of cunning to deal with the enemy, wouldn't it be twice as effective with half the effort?

Moreover.

With the powerful Jade-Faced Rakshasa around, how could she not plan for her younger brother's future?

Tsk tsk, I'll share some of my fortune with them later.
"Zi Liu."

The generals were drooling.

It's not just that the soldiers are desperate to get rich; they also want to share in the good fortune.

If Gan Minglan knew what they were thinking, she would definitely glare at them: "You're all so cunning, yet you're so modest?"
She was so frightened that she quickly waved her hand, saying, "We'll talk about this when we get back!"

Fifty-two Institutes.

While Gan Mingfu was supervising the construction of the new courtyard, Gan Minglan told her parents the purpose of her visit.

What parent would willingly let their children risk their lives?
But after hearing her daughter mention the restless Tatar tribes, she naturally understood the significance of her mission.

The couple couldn't bring themselves to object to sending their steady and intelligent eldest son along, no matter how reluctant they were.

Gan Minglan saw the struggle in her mother's eyes and said gently:
"Father, Mother! Fu-ge'er has read so many classic books over the past ten years, and he must have great ambitions to do great things."

But right now, his path to the imperial examinations will probably be delayed for several years. He's even considering joining the army. I tried to persuade him for a long time, but I couldn't convince him otherwise.

I was thinking of making him suffer a bit this time, so he would know how difficult it is to be a military household member.”

(End of this chapter)